COLLEEN LYNN QUEEN OF THE NUTTERS: Heather Jackson With all do respect Merritt Clifton and I do have a ton of respect for you, you can't possibly have numbers on " prevented attacks" because there is nothing to report if nothing happened

Julia Lewis

This is not about dangerous dogs but a plea to make dog chaining illegal. You could say there is a link in that dogs chained up all their lives are unsocialised and therefore could be aggressive. It is such a cruel practice.

http://www.animals24-7.org/…/how-to-help-dogs-left-chained…/

How to help dogs left chained alone in the cold

by Tamira Thayne Founder and CEO, Dogs Deserve Better "Bringing dogs into the family since 2002" We are again deep into winter, the time when Dogs Deserve Better’s phones ring off t...

ANIMALS24-7.ORG|BY MERRITT CLIFTON

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8 people like this.
Heather Jackson If rather see a pit on a chain than a pit on my kid, keep them chained !

23 hrs · Like · 3
Julia Lewis Leaving aside the pit question, I can't see the point in having a dog if it is to be so cruelly treated. It's terrible in places like Cyprus and Greece and many other countries in Europe, where they are kept chained up all their lives.

23 hrs · Like · 5
Julia Lewis And most of them are ordinary dogs that should be in the house with their family.

23 hrs · Like · 1
Amber A Maclin My dogs stay on the chain for short periods of time like an hour then they come back in the house. I hate seeing dogs chained all day and night

18 hrs · Like
Sonya Del Rio Cerezo If a dog is not in a secure fenced in yard, then I think it should be restrained in some way. If the only option for outside time is a chain, then they need to rehome the dog, put up a fence, take it to a dog park or keep it inside. Simply being unleashed in a public area or in a yard not fenced in is not acceptable for any dog.

18 hrs · Like
Julia Lewis Dogs need to be taken out for a walk every day - twice, if possible. My three dogs are in the house when they are not out on a walk. They go out into our little garden to pee, etc, then come back in again. I would never leave them outside alone, with nothing to do. It's even worse with a single dog, like solitary confinement.

15 hrs · Like · 1
Merritt Clifton Heather Jackson's comment that "I'd rather see a pit on a chain than a pit on my kid" reflects a common misunderstanding of dog behavior that unfortunately is not a misunderstanding of pit bull behavior--but in part because of the effects of chaining on pits. Let me explain this paradox. Normal dogs, feeling uncertain or threatened, retreat and run away or bark. Chaining eliminates the options of retreating or running. Without a choice between fight or flight, the chained dog fights. This is why approximately a third of all fatal and disfiguring dog attacks on children are made by dogs who are chained at the time of the attack. Dogfighters have understood this aspect of dog psychology for hundreds of years, so fighting dogs have traditionally been chained just out of reach of each other to whet their fighting instincts practically since chains were invented. Since the instinct to retreat or run away has also been bred out of pit bulls, what we get in a chained pit bull is a pit bull with an accentuated inclination to attack. The safest way to keep a pit bull, if one must keep a pit bull, is behind high secure fences and locked gates -- never, ever on a chain.

13 hrs · Like · 7
Heather Jackson But Merritt Clifton you aren't taking into account the fact that the owners are not going to simply not get a Pit or train it differently if they don't have a fence. Most fences can't hold pits anyway. They are going to simply , let them out. Pits don't " retreat " by nature. They don't act like other dogs. Normal dog behavior does not apply to them. I would not like to see any dog on a chain however I would rather see a pit on a chain than a owner open the door and a pit run out onto my child or myself.

13 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson How many kids are alive because a dog was chained? I know I am........... It's not good, but it's a better alternative because many never get off the chain.

13 hrs · Like
Julia Lewis Interesting, Merritt , that a third of the attacks on children are by chained dogs. Obvious, really, if one thinks about it. Interesting too that dog fighters put each pit bull just out of reach of the others. Very mean, really but then chaining is such a mean thing to do to a dog.

12 hrs · Like
Julia Lewis We don't chain dogs in the UK.

12 hrs · Like
Merritt Clifton There is, or was, an organization called Mothers Against Dog Chaining cofounded in 2003 by Dogs Deserve Better founder Tamara Thayne and Crystal Sinclair, who was the mother of the victim of a fatal dog attack. In that case the dog was chronically chained by a neighbor, but broke loose to attack Sinclair's little girl. The organization was active for several years, coinciding with the three years when I was Tamara Thayne's employer. Dogs Deserve Better is still very active, and Tamara in fact wrote today's lead article on the ANIMALS 24-7 web site, but I have not heard anything about Sinclair or Mothers Against Dog Chaining in several years now.

12 hrs · Like · 3
Heather Jackson Well we will have to agree to disagree as owners of pits tend to not be logical people to begin with. Blaming a tether instead of a natural instinct well known for pits and the fact that pits attack most often off a chain seems illogical to me. In a perfect world pits wouldn't attack and wouldn't exist. It's not a perfect world and I sure as hell am not going to push for the irresponsible owners down the street to untether their aggressive pit. Accidents do happen, dogs get over fences , under fences, out of front doors , dive off balconies, through windows ect.........,,,,,, blaming a pits aggressiveness on a chain is like blaming a victim for an attack because they were " carrying a pineapple".

12 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson Oh I understand that in a dog that has been used for dog fighting. I just don't think a normal pit that has been tethered is any more dangerous than a pit that has been untethered. Using chains in training is a whole mother issue. This is like saying a pit that has worn a muzzle is more likely to bite without a muzzle on because it was forced to wear a muzzle in the first place therefor the muzzle made the dog more likely to attack with it off. The dog would therefor be less dangerous if it had never had a muzzle on in the first place. That muzzle may have prevented this naturally aggressive breed dog from attacking people in the first place but who cares about that , we should outlaw muzzles .......

11 hrs · Like
Merritt Clifton Chaining isn't really effective containment anyhow. Chaining does not keep a dog from breaking off the chain or chewing through a thin cable or breaking his/her collar or harness. All of these accidents happen often every day, & keep animal control officers employed. Neither does chaining keep people from wandering too close to a dog, or from tripping over the chain, a type of accident involved in about half of all chaining-related mailings. Chaining is also easily abused by people who yank a dog's chain to get a violent reaction. Effective containment means good fencing & keeping dogs indoors in weather that might encourage them to try to break loose to find warmer, dryer, safer habitat. Chaining is at best a lazy person's approach to solving a problem. I have more than 32 years' worth of data here to show that on balance it accomplishes zero toward making dogs safer. Effective containment makes dogs safer, but chaining in no way fits that definition.

10 hrs · Like · 4
Heather Jackson I completely agree with almost everything you just stated however that doesn't change the facts. If these chains are preventing fatalities and these dogs are not controlled off the chains the damage will be catastrophic. I would rather see 10000000 dogs chained then one child killed or maimed. The owners that chained are irresponsible to begin with , outlawing chains won't change that and it takes a severe attack sometimes multiple severe attacks before animal control does anything.

10 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson Think about it this way, each removal equals 1 or more maulings or deaths. Sure they would lose the dog but others will pay the price........ I'd rather take my chances with a chained dog

10 hrs · Like
Merritt Clifton Chains are NOT preventing fatalities. That's the whole point. The purported efficacy of chaining in controlling a dog is an optical illusion. Doubt it? Compared Colleen Lynn's map of pit bull fatalities with a map (I believe Dogs Deserve Better has one) of places where chaining is forbidden.

10 hrs · Like · 3
Heather Jackson With all do respect Merritt Clifton and I do have a ton of respect for you, you can't possibly have numbers on " prevented attacks" because there is nothing to report if nothing happened. I've seen some very hefty chains and collars and while breaking them is a possibility , I know 100% what the result of that dog running out the door or jumping a 4 ft fence would be. We can't change how responsible owners are. But I know if they are lazy enough to chain that they are also to lazy to keep tabs on their dogs off chains. Animal control can't really help unless there is an attack and by that point it's gone too far and someone will pay forever. A chain IMO IS another barrier between an irresponsible owner and and innocent person.

10 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson Does that map have a count of pits in the area too? Does it give a number ? I can make a map of neighborhoods here that will have great numbers , infact zero pit attacks and zero fatalities. Why ? Because there are very few pits there and the owners have a lot of money and can afford 20000 fences

10 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson I don't think it's the chains, it's the numbers of pits and the ability of the owners to purchase very expensive high fences. Sure we all know that these people should not own animals but they still will regardless of anything we say or do.

10 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson One mauling caused by chaining is far better than 100 caused by pits running free. Rachel Simas. We just look at it in the opposite way. There is no data on prevented attacks because you can't report something that was prevented. I know for a fact that a chain saved my child and myself and that animal control can do nothing until one of us is mauled. So your advocating for my neighbor to be required to let his dog off chain and run free because that is what will happen, it will run free and get taken by animal contra after it rips my child's face face off .......... Think of all the people who live next to chained pitties, what if it's your child? Would that be a price your willing to pay a risk your willing to take that the owner suddenly wakes up one day responsible ? I highly doubt it

10 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson That means you think that the owners will not let the dog run free because it's against the rules to let the dog run free...... But it doesn't work that way, they will run free. Instead of me worrying about my child wandering within reach of the dog we will never be able to play outside at all because that's what I'll need to do to prevent an attack. I can call animal control all I want and rules or no rules their hands are tied until there is an attack . That dog being tethered is preventing an attack right now. I think that assuming that the dogs will be taken or that they will choose not to own dogs because of this law is a foolish and costly assumption and that there are to many variables in those " maps" to come to the conclusion that it's safer to have no chain laws.

8 hrs · Like
Heather Jackson I disagree, I'm safer with this pit tethered. And the whole " maybe they would need to find another solution " doesn't work in these areas either because they simply , won't. They are tethered because they are aggressive they are not aggressive because they are tethered.

2 hrs · Like